Modular Separation

[b]Forum Thread:[/b] http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/46669/ [b]Last update[/b] 29-08-2007

This is a solution for people that are looking for a way to keep associated models, views and controllers in the same directory and thereby making their application more modular.

[h2]Installation[/h2] First of all you should go ahead and grab yourself a copy of the [b]MY_Loader[/b] and [b]MY_Router[/b] files.

[b]Current version[/b] File:Modular_Separation_2.1.zip

[b]Previous versions[/b] File:Modular_Separation.zip

When you are done grabbing, you should place both files in your [i]/application/libraries/[/i] folder.

Finally, you must create the directory [i]/modules/[/i] in your [i]/application/[/i] folder.

And that is it!

[h3]... Unless you are running PHP 4[/h3] In which case you will have to use File:Modular_Separation_PHP4.zip. Download it and overwrite the original in your [i]/codeigniter/[/i] folder.

[h2]Usage[/h2] I would like to start with pointing out that you are still able to use controllers, models and views as usual when using Modular Separation. This also means that you can have global models and views in your standard folders and call them from your modules. If you, on the other hand, want to get rid of the folders then you are free to do so, [b]with the exception of the controllers folder[/b].

[h2]-----------------------------------------[/h2] [h2]Old documentation[/h2] A module consists of at least one controller and might include a number of models and/or views. These must be placed in the [b]application/modules/MODULENAME/[/b] folder (with [b]MODULENAME[/b] being the name of your module, ie. blog, forum, etc).

The files must be placed in the following folders:

[b]/system/application/modules/MODULENAME/models/ /system/application/modules/MODULENAME/views/ /system/application/modules/MODULENAME/controllers/[/b]

Your controllers will then be accessible as [b]www.example.com/MODULENAME/CONTROLLER/METHOD[/b].

Consider this URI:

[b]www.example.com/blog/entries/view/[/b]

In the above example, CI will open the [b]application/modules/blog/controllers/entries.php[/b] controller and call the [b]view[/b] method within it.

However, an URI like this:

[b]www.example.com/blog/[/b]

Will only look for the controller with the same name as the module, ie. [b]application/modules/blog/controllers/blog.php[/b] controller and call the [b]index[/b] method.

In order to let you call methods from your default controller (the one with the same name as your module, application/modules/blog/controllers/blog.php), CI will in fact handle this URI:

[b]www.example.com/blog/entries/view/[/b]

By first looking for a method called entries in [b]application/modules/blog/controllers/blog.php[/b] and then for a [b]application/modules/blog/controllers/entries.php[/b] and call its [b]view[/b] method.

You can even put controllers in sub-folders. If you do, the same rules apply as above, except the URI will need to have the FOLDERNAME before your MODULENAME:

[b]www.example.com/FOLDERNAME/MODULENAME/METHOD/[/b] (if default controllers has the called METHOD)

or

[b]www.example.com/FOLDERNAME/MODULENAME/CONTROLLER/METHOD/[/b]